


Bloom: A Monster Love Novella

by ASingleWhiteDoe



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Lesbian Romance, Nymphs - Freeform, Original work - Freeform, this is published
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 06:31:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15042833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ASingleWhiteDoe/pseuds/ASingleWhiteDoe
Summary: Holly Juniper had no idea she would fall in love with a monster.Every winter a mysterious portal appears in her family's barn. Nothing has ever come out of it, and she barely pays it any mind. Until a woodland nymph named Nia steps through it and into her life.Holly is vehemently opposed to her sticking around, not wanting her family play host to a monster, but eventually Nia grows on her in a way she never expected.Over the course of three months, the two fall in love. Despite them both knowing, come spring, Nia will have to return to her world through the portal, and she can never return.Book One in the Monster Love Novella series.NOW A PUBLISHED TITLE ON AMAZON. https://goo.gl/gBjqZ8 - Read the first chapter for free!





	Bloom: A Monster Love Novella

**A BLANKET OF PURE WHITE SNOW COVERED THE ENTIRE FARM** . Everything was quiet and still, the grounds completely untouched.

Holly Juniper stood in the mudroom of the farmhouse, staring out at the expanse of white with a soft smile on her face. Her footprints would be the first in the snow this morning. As the eldest Juniper sibling, she was the first to rise and start the morning chores. Not that she minded. There was something about having an entire farm to herself the morning after a snowy night that was incredibly inviting.

She took a deep breath through her nose, the sting of sharp, frozen air filling her lungs, and took a step forward. Her heavy duty rubber boots crunched the first bit of snow beneath her feet. The sound of it sent an excited shiver down her spine. Snowy days were her favorite days.

She made her way from the farmhouse to the barn, leaving a trail of footprints in the snow behind her. The barn loomed in the distance as she tramped across the yard; it was large and brown and dusted with snow. She kicked her boots against the side of it, trying to knock off the caked on snow before she entered.

The cows were probably getting antsy by now. This time of year, forcing them all together into the barn seemed to stress them out. Though, that had less to do with them being cooped up and more to do with the giant glowing portal that appeared in the barn every winter. No one in her family talked about it and no one went through it, but on days like this, when she rose with the dawn, there was no one to stop her from at least looking at it before she went about her daily chores.

She pushed the plastic lining she and her father had hung for insulation to the side as she entered the barn. Soft hay and dirt replaced the snow beneath her feet and the silvery light of the portal stood before her.

Holly had always thought the portal was gorgeous; the look of it there in the center of the barn, a flat silvery rip in the fabric of reality. It was  _ breathtaking _ . She would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought of going through it a few times, especially when things were getting harder at school, but it was something unknown to her and that prevented the portal from ever being anything more than winter decoration.

“Good morning, cows,” Holly said sweetly, turning away from the portal. She waved to the small herd that resided in their pen in the corner of the barn. The cows watched her, silently waiting to be released into the pasture for exercise. Nearby, she could hear the impatient whinny of the horses in the stables, the soft questioning bleating of the sheep in their hutches, and the cluck of the chickens wanting to be released to roam the snowy chicken yard.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, shoved her headphones into her ears, then she set right to work. She grabbed a pitchfork and filled up a nearby wheelbarrow with fresh hemp.

She would start with the horses first. They wouldn’t be too happy about being displaced for the few hours it would take her to muck their stalls, but she figured she could buy their affection with sweet oats.

She’d finished laying the last of the hemp she could fit in the wheelbarrow when the portal behind her made a horrid noise. There was a loud screeching boom emanating from it, loud enough that she could hear it over the music blasting in her ears.

“Holy  _ hell _ ,” She said, shoulders tense. She clapped her hands over her ears, shoving her headphones in deeper.

She turned around to stare at the portal. The shimmering silver light was shifting and expanding. Something she had definitely never seen the portal do in her 19 years of life. Holly shrieked and dropped her pitchfork, startling the ever-loving shit out of the cows nearby.

“Oh fucking Christ,” Holly hissed, grabbing the pitchfork again, ready to wield it against whatever was about to come through.

Before anything could spawn, the portal stopped and shrank back down to its normal size. Holly frowned, her heart still racing, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She sighed and laughed at herself, shaking her head. She felt like an idiot. Standing in the middle of a barn and brandishing a pitchfork against nothing.

She turned to look at the cows. They looked terrified, with their ears laid back, their dark eyes glassy and glued to the shimmering light of the portal.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, you big babies,” she said at the same time someone exclaimed “ _ Wow _ !” from behind her. Holly whirled around, brandishing her pitchfork and shrieking a whole slew of expletives.

“Oh!” The creature cried, jumping back. It was surprisingly nimble for what Holly could only describe as a  _ giant _ . It was  _ huge _ , towering above her. It must have been at  _ least _ seven feet tall.

“What the hell are you?” Holly asked, her voice shrill. Her mind was still trying to process that something came out of the stupid portal. Nothing had  _ ever _ come out of that portal.

Behind her, the cows were going insane. Their soft mooing erupted into a tumultuous roar so loud Holly could hardly hear herself think. She whirled back around on the herd.

“Stop that!” She shrieked at the cows, They fell still at her command.

She turned back to the creature who was now watching her curiously, and she raised her pitchfork, aiming it at the creature’s chest. She wasn’t confident in her ability to fight it off, but she was at  _ least _ going to get some answers.

“ _ Answer me _ ,” Holly said, poking the air with her pitchfork to drive her point home.

The creature turned its head to the side and examined her curiously. “Hominum?” It asked. Its voice was high and feminine, the opposite of its monstrous appearance.

The creature had wide pinkish colored eyes and thick lips. Its head was bare, with large branches jutting out at the sides. It had wide hips and an ample chest with a large expanse of dark skin, marred with lighter colors of tan and peach in places, especially its hands, torso, neck, and–and she was  _ very, very  _ naked.

Holly dropped the pitchfork and clapped her hands over her eyes. “Oh  _ Jesus _ ,” she shrieked. This is not how she had expected today to go. “What even  _ are _ you?” Holly asked, her tone accusatory. She peeked through her hands, trying to avoid the more obvious bits of the creature’s anatomy.

The creature tilted its head to the side, a smile quirking at the corners of its lips. It didn’t  _ look _ threatening, but Holly was basing that on the fact it hadn’t started attacking the shit out of her.

“Do you even speak human languages?” She asked, filling the silence between them with words.

“Hominum?” the creature asked, voice soft and melodic.

“Of course the giant magical tree creature doesn’t speak English,” Holly said, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “What was I thinking? That would have been too goddamn easy, wouldn’t it?”

The creature before her uttered a few more unintelligible words, but it sounded fairly offended.

“What language is that anyways?” Holly asked, trying to continue the conversation despite the creature being unable to respond in a language she understood.

“Latine,” it responded in what sounded like Italian.

“O...kay,” Holly said slowly.

The creature said something again and Holly sighed and narrowed her eyes at it.

“I can’t understand you,” Holly said, “You couldn’t have spoken Spanish or German or something? I only speak like two-and-a-half languages and none of them are wha—”

Holly was cut off by the creature grabbing her wrist and pulling her close to plant a kiss directly on her mouth. Holly’s brain stopped working.

“Holly, I—” one of her brothers started to say behind her, snapping her back into reality.

She was on her family farm, which was filled to the brim with younger siblings, kissing a naked tree creature. She shoved the creature away and turned to address her brother.

He was staring at her in shock, his mouth agape.

“Aspen it’s not what it looks like!” Holly said.

“Hello,” the creature said brightly behind her.

Holly turned over her shoulder and glared at her. She was pretty sure “hello” wasn’t how you greeted someone in whatever language it was speaking.

“I’m telling mom,” Aspen said, turning on his heel and dashing out of the barn.

_ Fuck _ .

She knew he was going to say that.

“I am called Kraneia,” the creature said behind her, extending its hand for Holly to shake.

Holly stared at its hand, unblinking.

“Do humans not greet each other this way anymore?” Kraneia asked in  _ perfect English _ , “It was one of the few bits of information I could get out of the old ash–”

“You can speak  _ English _ ?” Holly screeched, voice shrill.

The creature opened its mouth to respond, but Holly held up her hand to quiet it. “Nevermind,” she said, “Don’t answer that.” Holly could already hear her brother’s footsteps as he approached with their mother.

“Right now you need to hide,” Holly said, shoving Nia into one of the unused horse’s stalls. “My mother cannot see you in this barn.”

“Why?” Kraneia asked.

“I don’t have time to explain,” Holly said, “Just shut up and sit down.”

Thankfully, the creature did as it was told. Once her mother and brother returned to the house, she’d get Kraneia to go back into the portal and no one would be the wiser.

When Aspen and her mother reached the barn, Holly was back to mucking horse stalls with her headphones in her ears. The music was blaring so loud they could likely hear the tinny impression of it as they approached.

Her mother stopped and stood expectantly, arms crossed over her chest. She glanced down at Aspen.

Holly pulled her headphones out of her ears. This should be good.

“I swear she was here,” he said, looking around the barn frantically.

“Okay, Aspen,” Their mother said, reaching out and patting him on the shoulder. She looked at Holly then, her eyes narrowed.

Holly shrugged her shoulders, trying her best to look innocent.

“She was  _ here _ ,” Aspen insisted.

Their mother sighed and shook her head, saying nothing. She merely turned on her heel and left the barn.

Holly and Aspen watched after her, waiting until the door swung closed behind her to speak again.

“Where did you hide her?” Aspen asked, poking a finger into Holly’s face.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Holly said, returning to her task of loading more fresh hemp into the wheelbarrow so she could finish with the horses.

“Yes you do!” Aspen said, stomping his foot and glaring up at her.

“Aspen, go let the chickens out,” Holly said, sounding bored.

“ _ Fine _ ,” Aspen said, his face red with anger. He stomped out of the side door to the barn and into the chicken yard. “But only because I’ll get in huge trouble with dad if I don’t!” He shouted back at her. “Not because you told me to!”

Holly waited until she could hear the sound of Aspen letting the chickens into the yard before she set back to work. She loved her little brother, so lying to him wasn’t ideal, but once she shoved the tree woman back into the portal, she wouldn’t have to worry about that. What Aspen didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

“You can come out now,” Holly said, grabbing the handles of the wheelbarrow and wheeling it to the last horse’s stall.

“Hello, Buttercup,” Holly cooed to the horse as the Kraneia emerged from the stalls. Holly ignored her in favor of petting Buttercup’s snout, pressing a gentle kiss to the diamond on her forehead.

“You ready to have some feed?” Holly asked, leading Buttercup out of her stall and into the barn. She placed a bucket of sweet pellets in front of her and patted her mane fondly.

Buttercup nudged her arm with her snout in thanks and tucked into the feed.

“Was she your ‘mother’?” Kraneia asked when Holly looked up from Buttercup.

“Yup,” Holly responded, sticking her pitchfork into the soiled hemp and beginning her work on Buttercup’s stall.

“Yup,” Kraneia mimicked.

“It means yes,” Holly said, exasperated.

She needed to work quickly with no distractions. They only had five horses, but mucking stalls could take the better half of the morning if she wasn’t careful. She only had so much time left before the rest of her family would be awake and ready for breakfast. Kraneia needed to be gone by then.

“Why did you come here, anyway?” Holly asked, hoping she could talk Kraneia into leaving on her own.

“To see the human world,” Kraneia said animatedly. “No one from my world has come here in a long time. They think it’s boring or filled with savages, but from what I’ve seen so far I think they’re  _ wrong _ .”

“The only thing you’ve seen so far is the inside of this barn.” Holly deadpanned. “And your people were right,” she continued, “The human world is basically a huge mess of shitty things and awful people.”

“I don’t understand,” Kraneia said, looking around the barn at the cows and horses. “Everything here seems so pleasant.”

“Yeah, for now,” Holly said, shoveling the soiled hemp out of Buttercup’s stall quicker. The horse whinnied impatiently, shaking her head from side to side. She’d finished her sweet pellets and was losing her patience.

“ _ But _ ,” Holly continued, shooting Buttercup a look. She grabbed the broom outside of the stall to sweep the clean bedding to the side so she could clean the manure underneath. “Once my family gets out here, that’ll change. Sure, you’re safe with me, but they’re not so forgiving. You should definitely go back through the portal. Just to be safe.”

Kraneia narrowed her eyes, contemplating Holly’s bullshit. “I can’t go back.” she said, blinking slowly. “I just got here.”

“Sure you can,” Holly said, grabbing pitchforks full of fresh hemp to line Buttercup’s freshly mucked stall. She nodded towards the portal, “Step right through there and you’re good.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Kraneia argued, shaking her head. “I’m here until Spring Bloom. This is the first and last year I’ll ever be able to do this. Once I bloom, I’ll be too noticeable to make my way back into the human world.”

Holly stopped what she was doing, her gaze raking over Kraneia again. “You’re basically seven feet tall with bark-like skin and branches on your head, I’d say you’re pretty damn noticeable now,” Holly said.

“I didn’t realize humans would be so small,” Kraneia said, “We don’t have records on your world where I’m from. I tried asking the old Ash, but they’re such an unpleasant person. When they were in nymph bloom a  _ thousand _ seasons ago,” Kraneia said, “They visited here and your kind tried to cut them to pieces.”

“Sounds like humans, alright,” Holly said, frowning. “Why would you even want to come here after hearing a story like that?”

Kraneia shrugged. “I had to see for myself,” She said, her voice soft.

“Makes sense, I guess,” Holly said, patting the hemp down in the stall and grabbing Buttercup’s lead. “Here you go,” she said to the horse, “Your stall is all nice and clean now.”

Buttercup nudged her shoulder again, picking at the hemp Holly left in the feed bin. Holly rolled her eyes and stepped out of the stall, closing the door behind her.

“My dad is going to be here any second to help me take the cows out into the pasture,” Holly said, pulling out her phone and squinting down at the clock. “Are you  _ sure _ you can’t go back into the portal?”

Kraneia looked down at her, a frown on their face. Or what Holly  _ thought _ was a frown, her jaw was shaped a little differently than a human’s. She didn’t even know if her species  _ could _ frown.

“I  _ could _ go back into the portal,” Kraneia said, eyeing it warily. “Though I don’t know what will happen if I do.”

Holly blinked slowly at her. “What do you mean, ‘you don’t know what would happen’? Isn’t it a doorway from my world to yours? Logically, if you walk back through it, it’ll take you home.”

“No one has ever gone back through it immediately after coming here. Not even the ash. They waited until spring by hiding out in caves and forests.” Kraneia glanced around. “There  _ are _ forests here, yes?”

“Nope,” Holly said, “No forests. Just this single barn with these cows and those horses and nothing else. You can go home now. You’ve seen the human world.”

Kraneia looked unimpressed.

“What?” Holly asked with a shrug, “This is all there is. So off you go before my dad gets here and shits an actual brick because there’s a giant tree woman in the barn.” Holly paused for a moment, considering. “You  _ are _ a woman, right?”

Kraneia smiled and nodded her head. “Yes,” she said sweetly, “I am what your kind would call, a woman.”

“Cool,” Holly said, “Glad we cleared that up.” She took a step forward and grabbed Kraneia’s wrist, pulling her towards the center of the barn where the portal sat, shimmering brightly. “You can go home now. I’m pretty sure it’s fine.”

She nudged Kraneia encouragingly. “I’ve got a lot of shit to do and not a lot of time to do it. Can’t be babysitting a tree woman all day. Plus, my dad is definitely going to shit a chicken when he sees you.”

“Shit a chicken?” Kraneia asked, turning over her shoulder to look down at Holly.

“It’s human slang,” Holly explained, pushing on Kraneia’s back, trying to move her forward into the portal. “It means he isn’t going to be happy.”

“Why?” Kraneia asked. She sounded like a petulant child with all of her questions.

“Because,” Holly hissed, rolling her eyes and shoving her harder.

Kraneia teetered a bit on her feet. “What are you doing?” She asked.

Holly pulled back, shoving her hands into her coat pockets and glaring at Kraneia. “So uh, you definitely have to leave and I’m trying to make this easier on both of us. So I’m trying to push you into the portal.”

“I told you,” Kraneia said, “I can’t go back. I don’t know what will happen.”

“Well, you can’t stay here either,” Holly said, gesturing towards the portal. “Other humans wouldn’t understand–”

“ _ Holly Demetrius Juniper _ .”

Holly’s shoulders tensed, her arms falling back to her sides. She turned around slowly, a sheepish smile on her face. This was exactly what she had been trying to avoid.

“ _ Dad _ ,” she said, taking a few steps away from Kraneia and towards her  _ entire family _ who was now present.

Her father looked past her, his eyes glued to where Kraneia stood before the portal. His jaw dropped, hands reaching down to cover her brothers’ eyes. He looked back to Holly, words failing him.

“Hey everyone,” Holly said, laughing nervously. “Meet Kr...Ka...Uh, Nia,” She gestured to the nymph behind her. “Nia?” She asked, turning to look at her over her shoulder. “Meet my  _ entire _ family.”


End file.
